Kilometres of Hedgerows & Centuries of Farming History

For Matthew to work his magic, there has to be an abundance of mature hedgerows. Historically, however, this has never been a given. Much of our current agricultural landscape was shaped by post-war political choices and mass mechanisation. During the Second World War, winning the Battle of the Atlantic cost the lives of 72,000 naval and merchant seamen and the sinking of 3,500 merchant ships and their cargo, together totalling 14.5-million tons. The UK required an estimated one-million tons of imported material per week not just to fight but to survive.

Our vintage readers may remember post-war rationing and the days when clearing the land was widely seen as progress. The Agriculture Act of 1947 reflected bitter wartime experience and the Attlee government’s consequent determination to make the UK agriculturally self-sufficient. Farmers were financially rewarded for removing hedgerows, thereby maximising space for crops, minimising competition for nutrients and allowing heavy machinery greater freedom of movement.

Between 1940 and 2022, the UK’s agricultural self-sufficiency rose from 30% to 60%. In the same period, 523,000 out of one-million kilometres of hedgerow was lost. Clearing boundaries is just one part of a complex picture, but it is emblematic. Farmers around the world are acknowledging that intensive agriculture, while miraculous in its potential to feed billions, comes at an unsustainable cost. You can read our take on this substantial issue HERE.

The post-war period was by no means the first time that hedgerows had been savagely cut back. The collapse of Roman Britain in the fifth century followed by waves of plague and invasion led to steep population decline. This allowed the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to shift away from planted field boundaries in favour of arable in-fields surrounded by grazing land. The Normans and their successors up to the 16^th century inherited and sustained the open-field system, with serfs working open manorial land and grazing livestock on common land.

When hedgerows did make a come-back, they were too often a tool of oppression. Whether by shrub, tree or stone, forcible land enclosures typically asserted the land-owner’s privileges over the needs of the commoners who worked the land. The wool trade was a substantial economic force in late-medieval England and a major driver of enclosures. If you know where to look in rural Lincolnshire, you can still see the tell-tale lumps and bumps that are all that remain of medieval villages abandoned wholesale during the white goldrush.

During the Midland Revolt of 1607, the term ‘leveller’ was coined for those who levelled walls and hedgerows while rioting against the hated enclosures. From the early 17^th through to the mid-late 19^th centuries, however, enclosure was intensified and legitimised and occupied much parliamentary time. Besides several famous enclosure acts, Parliament granted more than 50,000 individual enclosure bills, bringing increasing profits for landowners and more cost-effective farming practices generally.

Hedgerows planted up to the late 19^th century used hawthorn almost exclusively, and many still criss-cross the landscape. Hedges were laid in the bank-and-ditch style in the 18^th century but were subsequently laid on the flat for speed. This drive for efficiency led to the first plant nurseries, where a good living could be made from knowing how to care for and transport young trees. The age of intensive enclosure only came to an end with the Commons Act of 1876, the gist of which was that enclosure could only be applied where it brought public benefit. Interestingly, this reform was initiated not on behalf of the working poor but by well-heeled urbanites asserting their right to use the countryside for recreation.

All of which brings us to our own place in the long history of hedgerows and farming. We’re determined to learn from that story and build a better future where rural commerce, the local community and wild flora and fauna can thrive together. Alongside many other measures, such as revitalising and preserving our soil biome and allocating substantial field margins to wildflowers, we’re progressively restoring the hedgerows of previous centuries.

Between 2018 and last winter, we laid more than 7km of new hedgerow. Between now and spring 2024, our hard-working team with the kind assistance of Alford Wildlife Watch will add another 600m. Each new sapling benefits from a weed-suppressant mat and a spiral to protect it from hungry muntjacs until it’s established. Used canes and spirals are later recovered and re-used on new plantings. We always seek to minimise our environmental impact and so we’re trialling biodegradable spirals.

Ten years on, a typical new hedgerow will have established itself and grown to around 12’ tall. It will brim with life and make a fine shelter for our native-breed Lincoln Red cattle from brisk easterly winds. We prefer a more diverse and future-proof mix than our Victorian forebears, and we use hornbeam, blackthorn, field maple, hazel, common dogwood, dog rose and crab apple as well as the time-honoured hawthorn.

Ultimately, each new stretch will show the real value of hedgerows; they are rich wildlife corridors, both hosting and spreading biodiversity to a far greater degree than any part of the rural landscape other than the soil biome. They’re a haven and a food source for birds, mammals and bugs, and form safe commuter routes between habitats.

Species like the hazel dormouse can’t cross farmed areas without hedgerows. Hedgehogs, harvest mice, bank voles, pipistrelle bats, blue tits, tree sparrows, yellowhammers and whitethroats are just a handful of the species that nest and feed in hedgerows. 80% of woodland birds can’t get by without them. A diverse mix of trees and shrubs fruiting at different times provides flowers, berries and nuts to see mammals and birds through the lean months.

Expert local birders Richard Doan and Phil Hyde occasionally survey our wild bird population with encouraging results. Seeing an increase in the number and variety of farmland birds badly affected by post-war practices shows us we’re on the right track. If we expect the farmed landscape to look after us for generations to come, we know we have to look after it.

Next time you take a walk in the lovely Lincolnshire Wolds, we encourage you to pause and take a long look at your nearest hedgerow. That intricate tangle of greenery is laden with history and new life and might just help make all our futures a wee bit brighter.

If you’d like to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Just head to our Facebook page HERE and comment beneath the latest blog post. As ever, thanks for your support.

* ‘Medieval reeve & serfs’ image, c. 1310, via Wiki PD

* Image of 1950s combine via Evelyn Simak /  geograph.org.uk CC

* Hedgerow banner image by Dave_S. via Flickr CC